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Negotiating Raises

How much of a raise should I ask for?

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Karen Chopra
Licensed Professional Counselor
www.ChopraCareers.com  
 

Karen James Chopra, LPC, MCC, NCC, has been counseling career clients since 1999 and has helped hundreds of clients change careers, find new jobs and deal more effectively with workplace challenges.

In addition to her private practice, she has worked for two national corporate outplacement firms: Lee Hecht Harrison and Resource Careers. These are the organizations that help people who have experienced a layoff or downsizing to find new jobs, and their programs are usually considered the gold-standard of job search technique.

Ms Chopra is a regular presenter on career issues, having taught career theory at the graduate level, designed and delivered numerous workshops, and served as a regular guest commentator on WMAL’s career radio show “Your Career Life.”

She is a career-changer herself. Before entering the counseling field, she worked for nearly a decade as a trade negotiator for the United States Government, first at the Department of Commerce and then at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

Ms. Chopra holds a number of relevant licenses and certifications: licensed professional counselor (LPC) in the District of Columbia; Master Career Counselor (MCC), a designation of the National Career Development Association (NCDA); and National Certified Counselor (NCC), a designation of the National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC).  She belongs to all of the relevant national and local associations involved in career counseling, including the American Counseling Association (ACA),  the National Employment Counselors Association (NECA), the National Career Development Association (NCDA) and the Washington Metropolitan Area Career-Life Planning Network (MAC-LPN).

Her B.A. is from the University of Virginia, and she received a masters of science in foreign service from Georgetown University, and a masters in community counseling from George Washington University.

How much of a raise should I ask for?

 

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Host: How much of a raise should I ask for?

Karen James Chopra: Now this is going to depend on the situation and on the level of compensation that you are at, what the standard cost of living increases are within the company. So it is a little hard to say, "I wish that were a 10% raise or a 20% raise.

"I have worked with people where we are looking at 25-50% raises because their situation is such that they are severely under-compensated for where they need to be. For other people, even a 10% raise can make a big difference if the base salary is adequate. So there isn't a rule of thumb, but what I would say is the raise needs to be more than you could expect to get in the given year. That is if company usually gives 2% or 3% raises for just cost of living, you at least want to go to a 5 or 10% raise to reflect increased performance. That's really beyond what you can expect and that is a significant amount of money for most people.

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